Weekend preview: Retrain your nightlife habits with Brightline

Beginning Saturday, a Whitney Cummings fan can hop a train from the Brightline station in Miami (parking is free this weekend) and an hour later walk to one of her shows at the Palm Beach Improv.

Beginning Saturday, a Whitney Cummings fan can hop a train from the Brightline station in Miami (parking is free this weekend) and an hour later walk to one of her shows at the Palm Beach Improv. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Brightline service starts in Miami on Saturday, the sleek (dare we say “chic”) train service finally linking the city with hubs of activity in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, another way for us all to better get to know one another’s downtowns on foot or bicycle.

Go ahead and laugh, but remember, the more people walk and bike, the more people walk and bike. It’s a good thing for cities.

Below are some ideas on where to go when you get off the train this weekend. Allowing for your initial reluctance to walk and bike, and the fact that it may rain, know that Brightline has a partnership with ride-share company Lyft, which is offering $5 off rides to and from all three train stations this weekend with the code BRIGHTLINE305.

Brightline will celebrate Miami service with special events Saturday and Sunday, discounted fares starting at $3 and free parking in the nearby garage (161 NW Sixth St.). For more information, visit GoBrightline.com.

WEST PALM BEACH

The Brightline Station in West Palm Beach is right in the middle of things, a few blocks from shopping and dining at CityPlace, a glass of wine at the Blind Monk, a beer at West Palm Brewery and the letting down of your hair on Clematis Street. Reasons to head to West Palm Beach this weekend include:

West Palm Brewery and Wine Vault (332 Evernia St.) kicks off a singer-songwriter series 2 p.m. Sunday on its Spilt Beer Stage, with music from Monty Warren and David Gruitza. While you’re there, try one of their Mexican beers, called Dreamers Lager. Visit WestPalmBeer.com.

If you are feeling ambitious, bike-share company Sky Bike WPB has racks of rides at the Brightline station for easy trips to the lovely West Palm Beach Waterfront and the Norton Museum. The bikes start at $3 per 30 minutes. Visit SkyBikeWPB.com.

MIAMI

Rapidly changing downtown still is probably not at the top of your list of places to go for fun in Miami, but the Brightline station soon will be home to Central Fare, a 50,000-square-foot food hall, and the area around the station (600 NW First Ave.) is close to such cultural destinations as Overtown’s Lyric Theater and Miami-Dade College’s Wolfson Campus, and about four blocks from AmericanAirlines Arena (which has Justin Timberlake on Friday). With just a little more legwork you can reach Bayside, Perez Art Museum Miami and Bayfront Park Amphitheater (home to EDM stars Odesza on Friday). If you don’t feel like walking, Citi Bike has a rack at the station with prices starting at $4.50 for a half-hour, $10 for an hour. Visit CitiBikeMiami.com.

Artist William Kentridge’s extraordinary work “More Sweetly Play the Dance” opens Saturday at Miami Dade College’s Museum of Art and Design, on the second floor of the Freedom Tower (600 Biscayne Blvd.). A multiscreen processional of video and the artist’s distinctive animated charcoal drawings, the 14-minute piece runs on a loop. Visit MDC.edu.

Perez Art Museum Miami (1103 Biscayne Blvd.) always has multiple exhibits running, now including a masses-oriented “The World’s Game: Fútbol and Contemporary Art,” works by more than 40 artists pegged to the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Visit PAMM.org.

FORT LAUDERDALE

There is construction covering it now (more downtown development) but at some point you’ll be able to walk to the north end of the platform at the Brightline station in downtown Fort Lauderdale, look to your right, across Northeast Fourth Street, and see the green-painted pedestrian path that leads to the arty enclave of FAT Village (and the great pies at Henry’s Station).

Henry's Sandwich Station is a fast-casual sandwich restaurant that uses upscale, artisanal breads, meats and cheeses for breakfast and lunch sandwiches and open-faced toasts.

Henry's Sandwich Station is a fast-casual sandwich restaurant that uses upscale, artisanal breads, meats and cheeses for breakfast and lunch sandwiches and open-faced toasts.

This weekend, the action is just south of the Brightline station, across Broward Boulevard, where Himmarshee Village (great pies at PizzaCraft), Revolution Live, the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and the Museum of Discovery and Science are in strolling distance.

NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale (1 E. Las Olas Blvd.), offering free admission on Friday as part of national Art Museum Day, is showing “Frank Stella: Experiment and Change,” a wide-ranging survey of the artist’s vivid works from the late 1950s to the present. Through June 3, show your Brightline e-ticket and get $2 off admission. Visit NSUArtMuseum.org.

“Jersey Boys,” the documentary-style musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, is running through Sunday at the Broward Center (201 SW Fifth Ave.), located on a gentle bend of the New River. On Friday night, the arena’s Amaturo Theater will have alt-country quintet Carbon Leaf, specializing in “ether-electrified porch music.” Pretty much the opposite of “Jersey Boys,” because that’s how the Broward Center rolls. Visit BrowardCenter.org.

The Museum of Discovery and Science will officially welcome a new North American river otter to its indoor habitat with family-friendly activities on Sunday beginning at 12:30 p.m. Older kids may want to do “Deadpool 2,” with multiple screenings in the museum’s IMAX theater this weekend. Visit MODS.org.

Across the street from the museum is a Broward County B-cycle ride-share rack. Prices are $5 for 30 minutes, and each half-hour increment thereafter. Visit Broward.BCycle.com.

WEEKEND LAUGHS

Jeremy Piven, who needs no introduction (Ari Gold on “Entourage”), and Max Amini (who can tell jokes about being an Iranian-American kid growing up in Arizona in Azerbaijani if he needs to) will bring their comic observations to the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $25-$75 (at LPACFL.com). … Sebastian Maniscalco this week announced a tour that includes a Dec. 27 show at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, with tickets (starting at $54.75) on sale 10 a.m. Friday (TheBBTCenter.com) … Tickets (starting at $40) also are on sale to see “Saturday Night Live” mainstay Colin Jost at the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek on July 14 (SeminoleCoconutCreekCasino.com).

DESTINATION SISTRUNK

The mutually beneficial relationship between the historic Sistrunk neighborhood and Fort Lauderdale’s downtown arts community will take another step in the right direction on Thursday (May 17) in FAT Village with the Cultural Marketplace Block Party, near ArtsUp Concepts (529 NW First. Ave.). Weather allowing, the free gathering will take place 6-9 p.m. and include displays and art making from Sistrunk artists, vendors, live music (by the Parkway Cavalier Jazz Band and the Broward Alliance of Gospel Music Professionals), food trucks and the Sailboat Bend Trolley Trivia Tour. The event is part of Destination Sistrunk, a new cultural tourism program presented by the Broward Cultural Division, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau and Old Dillard Museum. Visit Facebook.com/BrowardArts.

STROKE AWARENESS

Some iconic names of the South Florida music scene will play a benefit concert Saturday night at Churchill’s Pub in Miami for local musician Alex Diaz, also known as Xela Zaid, who suffered a stroke about 18 months ago that friends say left him with severe aphasia and medical expenses that are beyond what Medicaid will cover. May is Stroke Awareness Month. The 21-and-older concert, called An Evening for Xela II, begins at 9 p.m. and includes music from Humbert, Curious Hair, John Camacho & Friends (the Goods), the Brand, Victorious Eve, Ronit Golan, Carla Cabello, Brian Franklin, Amy Baxter, Mr. E & MLE, Jean Pereira and DJ Skidmark. There also will be a special performance by Rat Bastard and Xela Zaid. Admission is a $5 donation (more if you have it) at the door. Visit ChurchillsPub.com.

The nonprofit Rhythm Foundation celebrates 30 years of culture-curating with a Saturday benefit concert featuring the genre-defying multi-instrumentalist Marco Benevento, an event relocated from the North Beach Bandshell to the Gleason Room at Fillmore Miami Beach. The event runs from 6 to 10 p.m., with complimentary cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction, music by DJ Benton from 6 to 8 p.m. followed by a live performance from Benevento. Tickets for the fundraiser cost $125, including a Rhythm Foundation membership. Visit RhythmFoundation.com.

#ParklandStrong, A Benefit for the Victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School Shooting took place Wednesday, May 16, at the Pompano Beach Amphitheater. Performers included New Found Glory, Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional and former Yellowcard frontman Ryan Key. All proceeds from the show will go to the Broward Education Foundation Stoneman Douglas Fund, which serves the victims and families of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

(Michael Laughlin)

CHANGE PROVIDED

Organizers of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival on Tuesday will present “We Are the Change,” a 45-minute documentary about the journey of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students and teachers to Washington, D.C., for March for Our Lives. The 6 p.m. screening at Savor Cinema in downtown Fort Lauderdale will include opening remarks and a post-screening panel discussion. Among those on hand will be Douglas teachers Greg Pittman and Darren Levine, MSD students Lizzie Eaton, Rachel Catania, Ashley Sandoval, Anna Crean, Anna Kasperski and Sydney Aresta, North Broward Prep student Emilie Smith, along with the filmmaker, Gina Onori, and state Sen. Gary Farmer. Admission is free, but the students hope attendees will make a $10 donation to the anti-gun-violence foundation Giffords at the door or via Giffords.org. For more information, visit FLIFF.com.

WEEKEND BEERS

It’s American Craft Beer Week, and you could spend time and energy traveling to 100 South Florida breweries and bars, or you could make one stop at the second annual Ocean Brews & Blues Festival, which returns to the main beach parking lot in Deerfield Beach 3-8 p.m. Saturday with 125 beers from all over and music from the Mark Telesca Band, Shaw Davis and the Black Ties, and Jarekus Singleton. Tickets for four hours of sampling in a souvenir glass cost $40 advance, $45 at the gate. Visit Deerfield-Beach.com.